


let's just make our peace

by blackorchids



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst and Feels, Epic Love, F/M, Light Angst, Moving On, Past Relationship(s), Post-Break Up, Post-War, Pre-Epilogue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-05-14 11:46:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14769005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackorchids/pseuds/blackorchids
Summary: It's been a while since they've seen each other, and the second Hermione locks eyes with him, it's like everything rushes back.





	let's just make our peace

**Author's Note:**

> I found out they had closed [HPFF](http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com), which is the site that introduced me to fandom more than ten years ago. My feelings about the site's closing were mixed because it's not like I hadn't left it already knowing there was something not-that-great about it comparatively to other fanfiction hosting sites, but it still remained one of my foundation points for writing and in my life. Specifically, I wrote the last three "paragraphs" in this 500-word piece about those feelings.
> 
> title from _one last dance_ by R5

She’d heard he’d gotten hired in the MLE, after five years of weekly check-ins with Aurors and Mediwizards specializing in psychology and dark magic’s effects on the brain, but she’d been too busy to visit Harry and Ron five floors above her in a few weeks.

Intentionally busy, if she’s being completely honest with herself.

She stands, leaning against the archway that leads into the long rows of cubicles that house the ministry’s overworked law enforcement team. There’s a small circle of MLE workers in deep burgundy robes, debating and arguing, likely over another archaic and racist law that they’ve been trying to overturn. He’s not saying much, and there’s something familiar about watching the back of his head bent over a notebook as he scrawls something into it with a muggle pen.

His ease with the two speak to their past, hidden as it is from anyone outside of their small circle of trusted friends.

Malfoy’s a rookie, and he’s clearly trying to keep quiet, but Hermione can’t help but silently urge him to speak up when he gets that twist in his mouth that says someone’s said something wrong and he needs to correct them. It’s fascinating to see, this respectful deference to his superiors, but she also trusts that whatever he’s thinking is correct, and it still takes a lot of self-discipline from her to resist going over and steamrolling a path clear for him.

He wouldn’t appreciate her helping him out, and anyone he works with likely will never learn to respect and value his input if she makes it about _Hermione Granger, War Hero_.

A pale man with a beard and a tattoo on the side of his face says something and Malfoy looks up long enough to reply, expression mild and voice steady as he goes through his written-down points.

“Hermione!” Ron calls from the other side of the room as he and Harry step out of Kingsley’s office, their red robes bright and crisp. The small group surrounding Malfoy’s desk look up at the disruption and Hermione, half waving at Harry and Ron, more or less accidentally catches Malfoy’s curious gaze. He nods in acknowledgement, a near-imperceptible wryness turning up one corner of his mouth in what might generously be described as the beginnings of a smile.

A hundred shared looks, a thousand secret touches, a million battles, gruesome and hard-won, fought between each other as often as them against the world. His younger self, with the jagged edges and bloody, dangerous smile that she helped soften, is almost superimposed overtop the older, calmer version standing in front of her now. There is that age-old, familiar-as-rain-in-England fluttering in her heart, but it is momentary in its existence and she is not surprised in the slightest.

They shared the best and worst parts of themselves with one another, but they are different people now. Strangers who knew one another in what may as well have been another life.

She returns his nod.

**Author's Note:**

> come talk to me on my [tumblr](http://www.rosalinesbenvolio.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
